The curlew is one of the rarest species in Bavaria. It has been in Category I on the Red List for years. This means the species is in acute danger of extinction. “There are no longer 500 breeding pairs in Bavaria,” says biologist Verena Rupprecht from the State Association for Bird Protection (LBV). The snipe birds with the striking, gray-brown spotted plumage and the long, strong and curved beak were once widespread. Their habitats were the moors and meadows along the large and small rivers. Many of these have been drained and converted to farmland over the past few centuries. This is probably the central reason why there are fewer and fewer curlews in Bavaria – even though the Free State launched a multi-million dollar species aid program for them 40 years ago.
Five years ago, the LBV started an extensive research project to find out how to help the curlews in Bavaria to get back on their feet. To this end, he has so far equipped 33 animals with state-of-the-art GPS devices, and nine are currently on the transmitter. “With the devices, we can follow around the clock what the curlews are doing,” says Rupprecht, “even in their wintering grounds in France, southern Spain, Portugal and Morocco and on their thousands of kilometers of flights there and back.” The project is now entering its final round. This year another seven young curlews are to have transmitters strapped to their backs. The devices will then provide data until at least 2024.
The research project has already yielded some insights. “So the Bavarian curlews don’t have a linear migration route to their wintering grounds, everyone seems to be looking for their own route,” says the biologist. “The corridor stretches from Italy to Spain.” In addition, the researchers did not expect that the wintering areas are so widely spread over southwestern Europe and northern Africa. Of the nine curlews in the project, two are currently in Spain, three each in Portugal and France, and one has even flown to Morocco.
Rupprecht also reports new findings from Bavaria. In this country, the curlews head in the evening for central overnight sites where they are comparatively safe from foxes and other predators. “A prominent example of this is the bird island in Lake Altmühlsee,” says Rupprecht. “Up to 80 curlews congregate on it at night.” The animals sometimes even accept long distances for this, including young birds that have just fledged.
Probably the most prominent curlew in the project is Schnepfingerin. the Southgerman newspaper accompanied the female curlew for more than a year in her Bavarian homeland in the Königsauer Moos (Dingolfing-Landau district) and in her wintering area in the Coto de Doñana National Park in southern Spain. In March 2020, on the return flight from there to Bavaria, Schnepfingerin disappeared from the sky from one moment to the next without a trace. At the LBV they were sure that the female curlew had been shot down by a poacher in flight.
A year later, Schnepfingerin suddenly appeared in the Königsauer Moos, alive and kicking. Of course without a GPS transmitter. Apparently it had suddenly detached itself from her back the year before. They assume that the LBV is due to premature material wear. However, based on the rings on her legs, the LBV experts were able to clearly identify Schnepfingerin. By the way, she is now seen again and again. Most recently a few weeks ago in the Coto de Doñana National Park. “We are firmly assuming that Schnepfingerin will return to the Königsauer Moos again this year,” says Rupprecht. “Maybe she’s already there, and nobody has noticed.”